OAKLAND -- The federal judge who will decide the fate of Oakland's embattled police department ordered the city to begin settlement negotiations with attorneys seeking an outside receiver with powers to dismiss fire department brass.

Citing several areas of mutual agreement, including the need for additional court intervention in Oakland's police department, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson ordered the settlement talks and gave both sides until Nov. 29 to file a joint statement outlining their areas of agreement.

Henderson has scheduled a Dec. 13 hearing on a receivership motion brought by the attorneys who represented plaintiffs in the decade-old Riders police corruption case.

That case ended in a settlement that required the police department to accept federal monitoring and institute dozens of reforms. The reforms were to have been completed four years ago, but several still have not been fully implemented.

If a receiver is appointed, Oakland would become the first U.S. city to lose substantial power over its police department.